The present disclosure relates generally to electric power converters and, more specifically, to a two-phase heat removal assembly configured to limit evaporator dry out.
Many known semiconductor devices are used for electric power conversion (e.g., rectifiers and inverters). Most known rectifiers are used for converting alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) and most know inverters are used for converting DC current to AC current. Some of these rectifiers and inverters are integrated into full power conversion assemblies (i.e., power converters) used in renewable electric power generation facilities, such as solar power generation farms and wind turbine farms. The semiconductor devices typically generate large amounts of heat during operation of the power converters. At least some known power converters implement a two-phase liquid cooling system that include an evaporator for extracting heat from the semiconductor devices, and a condenser for dissipating the heat to an ambient environment. Two-phase liquid cooling systems are sometimes susceptible to dry out, in which all the working fluid in the evaporator has been converted to vapor and the evaporator contains no more working fluid to boil. As such, evaporator dry out may result in shutdown of the cooling system. Two-phase liquid cooling systems are particularly susceptible to dry out when rapid changes in thermal loading are induced to the evaporator.